Phone Card Design

Part II continues to help educate buyers on the basics of prepaid card production. This article addresses the preliminary steps before the actual design phase begins and the selection of a designer or a design agency. Before tackling the design of a card, it is important to clearly define the card's purpose. Here is a sample checklist to help determine how the card may be used."

Printing Considerations.

The next step is to determine what will be printed on the card and its placement. A few considerations:

Design Considerations.

After the mechanics and specifications are determined, the design phase begins. Questions to ask include:

Selecting a Designer or Agency.

There are several things to consider before selecting a designer or a design agency. An agency maintains a staff of specialists, including art directors, designers, illustrators, typographers, photographers and other specialists.

Agencies are usually the best choice if the campaign has a very large budget and has multiple pieces. Agencies also can offer the range of services needed to support numerous designs that are executed in different venues (i.e. magazines, direct mail, etc).

A less expensive option to an agency is an independent designer. Keep in mind that most designers specialize in a particular style and typically do not offer specialized services such as photography or illustration. An independent designer is often a good choice for smaller projects in which the concept has already been identified or for customers who know exactly what they want.

Before meeting with a designer or a design agency, ask for recommendations from other companies. When viewing portfolios, ask the budgets for the different pieces. Ask the hourly rates and number of hours spent. If a design agency is selected, ask for the different hourly rates for different design specialists. There are usually different hourly rates for designers, illustrators, photographers, etc. Some design agencies or designers will offer a discount on hourly rates in exchange for a retainer fee that ensures them long-term business.

One really important note is to ask about the ownership of the artwork. Some design companies consider themselves the owner of the artwork and will not release electronic files to the customer. Other design companies consider the client the owner of the artwork and will release the files to the customer to alter and/or reproduce as desired. This is a very important issue to address in order to prevent potential problems.

Another important issue is understanding the difference between design and production. Many designers can create a card that looks great on the computer screen and on color print out, but is not set up correctly for printing.

There is a huge knowledge gap between designing a card and preparing (known as pre-flighting) the file for production. Even though the art specifications may have been provided to the designer, pre-flighting can help identify and correct problems during pre-production, rather than at the color proof stage before going to press.